Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/529

Rh M A N M A N 505 the peninsula of Cape York), and comprehend, according to Mr Sharpe (Cat. B. Brit, Museum, iii. p. 164), two genera, for the first of which, distinguished by the elongated tufts on the head, he adopts Lesson s name Phonygama, and for the second, having no tufts, but the feathers of the head crisped, that of Manucodia ; and Mr W. A. Forbes (Proc. Zool. Society, 1882, p. 3-49) observes that the validity of the separation (which has not yet been generally acknow ledged) is confirmed by what is now known of their tracheal formation. Of Phonygama Mr Sharpe recognizes three species,P. keraudreni (the type) and P. jamesi, both from New Guinea, and P. gouldi, the Australian representative species ; but the first two are considered by Mr Elliot (Ibis, 1878, p. 56) and Count Salvadori (Ornito l. della Papuasia, ii. p. 510) to be inseparable. There is a greater unanimity in regard to the species of the so-called genus Manucodia proper, of which four are admitted M. chalybeata or chalybea from north-western New Guinea, M. comriei from the south-eastern part of the same country, M. atra of wide distribution within the Papuan area, and M. joltiensis peculiar to the island which gives it a name. Little is known of the habits of these birds, except that they are as already mentioned remarkable for their vocal powers, which, in P. keraudreni, Lesson describes (Voy. de la Coquille, Zoologie, i. p. 638) as enabling them to pass through every note of the gamut. Mr Wallace (Ann. Nat. History, ser. 2, xx. p. 476) remarked that M. atra was very power ful and active, clinging suspended to the smaller branches of trees, on the fruits of which alone it appears to feed. M. gouldi, according to an informant quoted by Mr Forbes (ut supra), frequents in pairs the dense palm-forests, perch ing high up, uttering a very deep and loud guttural note ; it is graceful in its movements, evincing more curiosity than timidity on being approached. As with members of the Paradiseidae generally, the niditication of the Manucodes is still shrouded in mystery. (A. N.) MANUEL I., COMNENTJS, emperor of Constantinople from 1143 to 1184, was the fourth son of John II. (Calo- Joannes), and was born about the year 1120. He suc ceeded to the imperial crown on April 8, 1143, having for his martial qualities been nominated by John to the inheritance in preference to his elder surviving brother. During his reign of thirty-seven years lie was involved in almost perpetual war, in which he displayed much more of the courage of a soldier than of the prudence and skill of a commander. In 1144 the imperial general Demetrius Branas brought back Raymond, the Latin prince of Antioch, to his allegiance, and in 1145 Manuel in person drove out the Turks who had invaded Isauria, and compelled them to accept peace on his own terms. In 1147 he granted a passage through his dominions to the crusaders under Louis VII. of France and Conrad III. of Germany, but secretly harassed them by every means in his power, and sent word to the Turks of their approach. In the following year he became involved, along with the Venetians, in a war with Roger of Sicily, who had taken Corfu and invaded Greece ; an episode of the campaign towards its beginning was his repulse beyond the Danube of the Patzenegues, of whom he took hostages for their future good behaviour. Disembarking his host at Corfu before the end of the year, he invested the fortress in co-operation with the Venetian army ; the inhabitants, after a long siege, in which he displayed prodigies of personal strength and valour, surrendered in 1149. Manuel was now prevented from invading Sicily by a diversion made by the Servians and Hungarians on the Danube, who were nut completely vanquished until 1152. In that year Manuel was repulsed by the Turks in Cilicia, but in the west his troops obtained possession of Ban, Brundisium, and other places of importance in Apulia and Calabria. The course of Italian politics, however, deprived him of the means on which he had reckoned for enabling him to reunite southern Italy with the Byzantine empire, and after the defeat of his fleet at Negropont he concluded a peace with William, Roger s successor, in 1155. The next important war of Manuel s reign was waged against the Hungarians from 1163 to 1168 ; it came to an end in the latter year with the hard- won victory of the Byzantine arms at Zeugminum (Semlin). Less successful was the expedition under Anclronicus Contostephanus against Egypt in 1169, when the combined forces of Manuel and King Amalric were compelled to withdraw from before Damietta. From 1171 to 1174 Manuel had a war with the Venetians ; and in 1176 he led in person an expedition against Kiliclj Arslan, the sultan of Iconium when he sustained a disastrous defeat at Myriocephalus, and was compelled to sign a dishonourable peace. This disgrace, although partially retrieved by a somewhat more successful expedition in 1177, so preyed upon the spirit of Manuel that he ultimately succumbed to a slow fever on September 24, 1180. He was first married to Bertha (Irene), a relative of Conrad III. of G.ermany, and afterwards to Maria (Xene), daughter of Raymond of Antioch ; Alexis II., his son by the latter, succeeded him. MANUEL H.^PAL.EOLOGUS, emperor of Constantinople, was born in 1348, and succeeded his father, John VI. (with whom he had been associated since 1375), in 1391. At the time he was a hostage at the court of Bajazet at Nicsea, but succeeded in making his escape ; he was forthwith besieged in Constantinople by the sultan, whose victory over the Christians at Nicopolis, however (September 28, 1395), did not secure for him the capital. Manuel subsequently set out in person to seek help from the West, and for this purpose visited Italy, France, and Germany, but without material success ; the victory of Timur in 1402, and the death of Bajazet in the following year, were the first events to give him a genuine respite from Ottoman oppression. He stood on friendly terms with Mahomet I., but was again besieged in his capital by Amurath II. in 1422. He died in 1425, and was succeeded by his son, John VII. MANUEL I., emperor of Trebizond, surnamed the Great Captain (6 o-Tpar^yuaoTaTc^), was the second son of Alexius I., first emperor of Trebizond, and ruled from 1238 to 1263. Whatever may have been his military skill, or his personal character for bravery, he was unable to deliver his empire from vassalage first to the Seljuks and after wards to the Mongols. He was the founder of the church and monastery of St Sophia at Trebizond. His predecessor was John I., Axuchus, and his eldest son, Andronicus II., succeeded him. Manuel II., the descendant of Manuel I., reigned only a few months in 1322-33. Manuel III. reigned from 1390 to 1417, but the only interest attaching to his name arises from his connexion with Timur, whose vassal he was. See Finlay, Mediaeval Greece and Trebizond, 1851. MANURE. The term &quot; manure,&quot; though formerly ap plied only to the excrements of animals, either alone or mixed with straw, is now more widely used, and is given to all substances, or mixtures of substances, which are added to the soil in order to increase its productiveness or to restore the natural fertility lost by repeated cropping. The subject of manures and their application involves a prior consideration of plant life and its requirements. The plant, growing as it does in the soil, and surrounded by the atmosphere, derives from these two sources its nourishment and means of growth through the various stages of its development. From these sources, each equally indispensable, the plant obtains the materials which it has the power of elaborating and building up to form its own structure. Chemical analysis has shown that plants are composed XV. 64